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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Restaurant Impossible - Smitty's Restaurant Update

Photo - Food Network

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to Clearwater, Florida to help out Smitty's
Restaurant. The crew ends up having to use a lot of time and money on an exterminator in this episode which Robert has said could be the dirtiest restaurant he has ever done. As I
normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the
Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Smitty's Restaurant to get
an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is
what I found (note - all reviews and comments are post Restaurant:
Impossible):

This restaurant pretty much has zero reviews online since the visit, so this update will be a little different than normal. I will just go over the things other than reviews found about this restaurant.

When doing the Smitty's renovation in February, Robert said on Twitter "Day two at Smitty's restaurant in Clearwater Florida OMG the dirtiest
place I have EVER EVER seen in my life. Feeling I'm losing this battle." He also said that it was twice as dirty as Rascal's in season 1 and there were 100,000's of bugs.

Robert was there February 15, and on March 20th, Smitty's had a restaurant inspection. In this inspection there were 13 violations including:

Dead roaches on premises.(3 dead in dish area, 2 on floor between ice machine and upright reach in freezer)

Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found.(2 live in dish area, 1 live on floor near upright reach in freezer)

Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with food.(raid ant and roach spray by bread on cooks line)

Here is the full inspection report with the 13 violations. So, it looks like the bugs are still a problem a month after Restaurant Impossible left.

An article in the Tampa Bay Times earlier this week stated, "By Irvine's account, of the 74 restaurants the show has remade, four
have subsequently been sold and eight have gone out of business." So, he is still way off on his numbers when you compare them to mine.

Conclusion:

Smitty's is pretty much a diner serving breakfast and lunch, and not having many reviews online is not a good sign for a restaurant. Usually the buzz of Restaurant Impossible coming to town has people eager to write reviews of the changes made to the restaurant.

With the restaurant having cleanliness problems, including thousands of bugs, it does not make local people want to go try the restaurant. Restaurants that have had bug problems in the past on the show usually do not end up thriving after a Restaurant Impossible visit. I know I probably wouldn't go to a restaurant after seeing thousands of bugs in the kitchen, no matter how many times an exterminator came. An inspection a month after Restaurant Impossible visited still found roaches, which is also not a good sign.

This one will have to be watched.

UPDATE 5/9/2013 - A recent inspection on 5/1/2013 had 12 violations and some of the high priority ones from the inspection notes are listed below.

Dead roaches on premises.(3 dead in dish area, 2 on floor between ice machine and upright reach in freezer)

Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found.(2 live in dish area, 1 live on floor near upright reach in freezer)

Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with food.(raid ant and roach spray by bread on cooks line)

Pesticide/insecticide labeled for household use only present in establishment.

SurprisedRobert let them continuing to be in the restaurant business. They don't deserve it after never considering to attempt keeping the kitchen clean or to code. People like this should not be allowed to run a restaurant.

It takes a while to get rid of a roach infestation, even if you're treating it every couple of weeks. We can only hope that they keep trying to improve their cleanliness and their food-handling practices. In their (limited) defense, lots of restaurants can be dunned for storing meat over veggies or putting chemicals near food--mistakes happen and places learn (or should learn) from their mistakes.

Let me tell everyone about Florida ...... YOU CAN NOT GET RID OF ROACHES 100% .... You can only control them to an extent. Secondly contrary to popular belief Roaches are not dirty bugs, they clean themselves constantly. And according to recent research they are being used to produce new Antibiotics.

The sad part is, theres no way Robert Irvine just happened upon the roach issue. It HAD to be known.. By the cooks and owners. And as you can see by how poorly they kept that place clean.. The roach problem was ignored. This show sank Smitty's even more. No way would I eat there.

In all fairness, it was stated on the show that it could take months to get the bug problem completely eradicated that is why the exterminators were to come out every month for a year. I think the criticism above of April 28th Smitty's Restaurant is unnecessarily negative. It only gives people a chance to post mean and negative comments about a restaurant struggling to survive. It is easy for posters to say "they are pigs" "shut it down." But, having been a life-time self-employed business person I know how easy it is to get beyond discouraged and to start letting things slip especially when you are working your butt off and losing money every day because of the current economic situation in our country that started in 2007. So, unless you have eaten there don't run this business down before it has a chance to turn around.

How is the inspection from 5/9 a carbon copy of the text from March 20? Something's wrong with that. Plus, roach problems take time to solve, especially one that bad. Anyone living in the south can tell you that. It's not an excuse, but I think alot people are too harsh.

I am split 50/50. The place was terrible and the dirt disgusting. I would be interested to see what it looks like now... The roach problem is a long term thing but if the cleanliness that they had at end of show isnt kept up then the roaches are there to stay.

Hi, I do pest work for stores, food and beverage plants nd restaurants, I was almost yelling at the pest guy, he was NOT doing the jog right , no wonder they still had pest s sues. When Robert went back into he kitchen her should hav been hundreds of DEAD cockroaches,